Baakari Wilder is internationally known for starring in the Broadway musical Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk. He received a Bessie Award for his performance, and later assumed the lead role for a year. At the age of twelve he opened the show at the Kennedy Center for a star-studded tap review that included the legendary Brenda Bufalino, Sandman Simms, Har- old Nicholas, and Savion Glover. He was the first recipient of the Steve Condos Award, creat- ed by Lorraine Condos in honor of her late husband. At sixteen Baakari became a member of Savion Glover’s tap group Real Tap Skills, consisting of three other tap dancers from the met- ropolitan area. Baakari’s dancing has delighted audiences around the world in places such as
the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, France, Africa, Brazil, Germany, and Japan. He appeared in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, the Discovery Channel’s Time Warp, and as a guest performer on FOX channel’s So You Think You Can Dance. Baakari has a Bachelors of Arts degree in theatre from the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the assistant artistic di- rector of the Washington D.C. based company Capitol Tap. Baakari was recently granted the 2014 Pola Nirenska Award for Acheivement in Dance.
